The Ultimate Game Machine

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The Ultimate Game Machine contest started about nine years ago, when Computer Gaming World began its annual rite of collecting gaming PCs and testing them. I was in on those first days, and the systems back then were mostly DOS, often had SCSI drives and blazingly fast 133 MHz Pentium processors. Heck, 3D graphics for gamers were in their infancy, but one thing those systems had in common with today’s uber-machines: They had SLI. Back then, SLI stood for scan line interleave, and consisted of a pair of Voodoo 2 cards. Since game systems still needed fast DOS graphics, the primary card was often a Matrox Millennium or some card based on the old Tseng ET4000. Oh, and prices topped out at around $3,500.

Fast forward to today. Computer Gaming World has evolved into Games for Windows: The Official Magazine. ExtremeTech and Games for Windows worked together to bring this roundup of high-end game systems to fruition. We have systems priced close to $8,000 at the top end. Even the lowest cost system weighs in at over $4,000. Of course, there’s been nine years of inflation since then, so those prices aren’t quite as staggering as they would have been back in 1997.

This week, we’re running three days of ultimate game systems. Each day will feature two system reviews, and we’ll announce the winner on Thursday. These are all serious contenders, who survived the intense round of benchmarking and stability tests. Five out of the six are overclocked, while three of them have quad-core processors.

The CPU isn’t the only ingredient, of course. Four of the systems arrived on the scene with Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX in SLI (scalable link interface) mode. And no one has SCSI drives, though they all use RAID 0 arrays, mostly to speed up read performance.

I mentioned earlier that we originally received nine systems. As Darren Gladstone from Games for Windows likes to put it, “Three didn’t even leave the pits.”

The Ultimate Game Machine shootout has always been an opportunity for PC companies to demonstrate their bleeding edge capabilities. But sometimes companies either try just a little too hard, or other problems intervene. Three of the PCs had serious problems with stability. The three companies who submitted these systems all have good track records, so it’s not like they were fly-by-night operations. In the end, they pulled out of the competition entirely.

In one case, one company tried to implement an interesting new cooler, but we suspect the prototype they used couldn’t withstand the rigors of shipping. Another company pushed their system so hard that they recommended plugging the system directly into the wall, because a power strip might reduce the current just enough to make the system unstable. In another case, it was just a matter, we think, of being a little too eager to “win.” In the end, they pulled out of the competition.

One of the conditions of entering was that the companies were required to make these systems orderable from their Web sites by November 15th. We have to give credit to the companies that dropped out, because they wanted to be sure they could offer whatever system submitted to their customers. So we’re not naming names, because it’s unlikely you’ll see these exact systems for sale anyway.

Six PCs did survive, including several that did push the bleeding edge pretty hard. Those are the systems we want to celebrate.

It’s also worth discussing scoring. We’ve always had a 1-10 scoring system at ExtremeTech. We’d like to clarify some of the scoring for this roundup.

On the scale, a 5/10 is average. This is unlike the grading system in schools, where 7/10 is a “C” and is typically thought of as average. This gives us a little more room to play with scale. So a 5/10 is an average, competent system that may have some issues, but none of the issues are showstoppers. Anything below 5, and the product is seriously flawed. So if you see a score of 5/10, don’t think “it sucks.” Think, instead, that it’s reasonably competent at what it does, may have some interesting features, but compared to its peers, is unexceptional in most ways.

For the Ultimate Game Machine, the main criteria are stability, performance and gamer-oriented features. Thankfully, stability was a non-issue with the survivors, so it really came down to stability, performance and gamer-oriented features. Secondary characteristics were price, overall design appeal, and fit-and-finish. These secondary characteristics can make a difference between two systems that are otherwise very close.

GeForce 8800 GTS ReviewNormally, I mention upcoming articles in “This Week on ExtremeTech,” but since the week is mostly the UGM competition, I want to be sure to point out today’s review of eVGA’s GeForce 8800 GTS. Last week, we took a look at PNY’s GeForce 8800 GTX. Most of the 8800 GTX boards cost $599 or more (many seem to be priced around $649.) The 8800 GTS boards are supposed to be priced from $449 – $499—still pretty pricey, but it’s at least one notch down from six hundred buckazoids.

We’ve received a lot of requests for 8800 GTS reviews, so we’ve got it up today for your reading pleasure. Check out what Jason Cross has to say about the 8800 GTX’s little sister.

It’s also the holiday season, and we’ve started running our holiday geek gift guide. And don’t forget to subscribe to our weekly podcast.

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